Integrative Positive Psychology Paper

Research has suggested that cardiac patients benefit from positive psychology interventions since they are often experiencing depression, anxiety, and negative affect. American Heart Association has acknowledged the association between depression and worse prognosis following acute coronary syndrome due to possible nonadherence to lifestyle changes. As I mentioned earlier, positive psychological constructs, such as optimism, positivity are related to less cases of hospitalization, adherence to prescribed medication, and consequently reduced mortality and secondary complications in patients with chronic diseases. Some studies also show that the same positive constructs play a positive role in patients with heart diseases. Specifically, individuals

However, emerging evidence show that positive psychology interventions are quite effective for individuals suffering from mental and physical disorders. The findings provided in this paper have significant implications for clinical practice and therapeutic interventions for patients with a variety of chronic diseases since most of them are lifelong and debilitating, causing many psychological problems. Integrative positive psychology allows practitioners and scholars to study positive and negative well-being together, as well as apply the findings into the clinical settings. I argue that looking at the research results, the use of positive psychology interventions, such as well-being therapy, cognitive restructuring, positive reappraisal, groups interventions based on positive psychology principles within populations of individuals suffering from chronic illnesses and/or disability should be effective and could lead to positive treatment outcomes. I believe that the goal of positive interventions should be focused on helping individuals with pessimism and hopelessness develop positive attitudes of illness and/or disability to maximize adaptation and psychological